A/N: THREE IN ONE DAY. NOT EVEN ONE DAY, IT'S BEEN SIX HOURS SINCE WE STARTED WORKING! HOW GREAT IS THIS? Lea and I have been grinding on these like- it's not stressful at all either. This is so fun. Please leave a review and tell me what you think of these, I'm really enjoying it and want to know others are, too. Rest assured, the story does not end here folks. There are at least 5 more chapters already planned, and a few more I'm working on planning.
Chapter VI: Of Pearl Barrettes and Paper Daisies
Mid afternoon, the rain still beat at the windows, serving as the soundtrack to Nora's sketching. The droplets cast tiny grey shadows on the gallery wall behind the check-in desk, lightning occasionally flashing, leaving pristine white light to reflect off the framed pictures and back at the windows.
Nora's eyes darted up from her sketchbook, shoving it aside, at the familiar ringing of the bell, the panic at an unknown walk-in making her revert back to the script-like opener. "Welcome to Ink About It, may I have your name and-" she paused, a smile immediately spreading across her face, "Hey."
Ren walked up to the register, a light smirk playing at his lips, "Hi."
She seemed to hesitate before speaking, "I- uh, I went to find you yesterday after my shift ended. But you weren't at work."
He offered her an apologetic smile, "Yeah, I had dinner with my parents, and they live upstate, so I had to close a few hours early." He paused, "Did you need something?"
She waved her hand dismissively, "Nah, just wanted to say hi." She angled herself towards him, resting her cheek on her palm. "So, what brings you here?"
He hooked his thumbs through the loops of his belt, rocking slightly on his heels, "I… um."
She bit her lip in an attempt to hide her growing, expectant smile.
"Would you want to go do… something?" he stammered nervously, glancing at the floor.
She raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
He took one look at the way she'd clipped half of her bangs back with a pearl barrette, and let his eyes flick to hers, and lost all of what little nerve he possessed. "Uh, like get coffee again?" Ren's voice cracked on the last syllable and he winced, coughing awkwardly into his elbow.
Her expression flickered, but her posture straightened, "Sounds fun, but um, maybe we could… uh… change the terms?"
Ren's brows knit, "What do you mean?"
She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, opened her mouth, and closed it. She swallowed, "You know how last time I said 'like a friend date'?"
He nodded, smile returning.
She inhaled, averting her eyes and hurriedly saying, "Maybe we could change that."
"Like…" he shifted his stance, "An actual date?"
She winced slightly, nodding, "Y-yeah."
"I'd like that," he puffed out a laugh, rubbing the back of his neck, "I'd like that a lot."
"I'd-" she scoffed elatedly, breath catching, "I'd like that a lot, too."
He grinned, "Then, um-" he glanced away and then back, "Then, what do you want to do?"
A bubbly, exhilarated laugh escaped her lips, "Wha-what do you wanna do?"
He threw his hands up slightly, still grinning harder than he thought possible, "Uh, do you want to go get dinner?"
She ran her hand through her hair, fiddling with the barrette, "Sounds great, I- I know this nice place across from the movie theater- the big one, about twenty minutes from here, if you wanted to go an hour after my shift ends? I get off around 6 tomorrow."
"Great," he put his hands in his pockets, "Um, do you want to meet there or should I pick you up?"
She ripped whatever drawing she'd been working on out of her sketchbook, jotting something down in the corner, and handed it to him, "Address." She beamed, "I'm not that worried about you murdering me, so."
He laughed, shaking his head in disbelief, "Not only would I not do that, pretty sure Yang, Pyrrha and Coco would tear me limb from limb."
She giggled into her hand, "Oh, before you even tried."
He looked up from the desk, "So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow at 7."
"Y-yeah, I- I look forward to it." she smiled sheepishly.
"Great." He looked back at her face and their eyes met.
"Great." she repeated softly.
The little lilt of her tone was enough to briefly disarm him, forcing him to actively snap himself back to reality. "I should probably…" he gestured at the door, still holding her gaze.
She waved slightly, "Ehehe, well, seeya later."
"Can't wait." he felt for the door handle, reluctantly looking away from her as he left.
She waved after him, melting back to her previous position with her palm against her cheek, and sighed.
"That was painfully cute." Yang stood in the breakroom doorway, leaning against the frame, expression contorted in mild disgust.
"Yeah," Nora sighed again, folding her arms atop the counter with a dreamy smile. "Yeah, it was."
Yang curled her lip, setting her hands on the counter next to Nora. "This is going to be just like Jaune and Pyrrha," she brought one arm up to pinch the bridge of her nose as Nora wrapped herself around Yang's free limb.
Nora slid against the arm, blissfully drifting down until she laid partially on the counter, "Can you believe he came to ask me out at the same time as I was going to ask him?"
Yang cast a concerned glance at her friend, "This is going to be worse than Jaune and Pyrrha."
Ren walked into his apartment in a daze that day, completely ignoring Jaune's excited questions of how it went, going straight to his room and shutting the door behind him. He slid against the door, cheeks aching from smiling so much. He extracted the sketch Nora had given him from his pocket, studying it, and didn't know whether it was the intricate daisies carved in ink or the address scrawled across the bottom that made him happier.